At least Zeus knew he was a prick
sent in by Jay
I was born into Christianity, and just like everything else your parents tell you, it has to be true. Well, as a child my ability to reason did not go far beyond "stove hot", so naturally I fully believed what my parents told me. It is reasonable to assume that they taught me about their god and did so as a verifiable fact. So I didn't doubt it, I didn't know any better and if I went to church I didn't get in trouble. To be honest, I never really believed in Jesus Christ as he is presented in the bible, I believed in Jesus Christ as the church presented him (if he did in fact exist at all). I never read the bible or prayed, and I certainly didn't tithe. It took me until I was fifteen years old to read the bible, and at that point something very curious occurred.
I realized that many parts of the bible, and I'm sure that those reading this need not be refreshed, flat out contradicted each other. Even the sections that made sense were quite often ridiculous and incredible. Did the church really expect me to believe that angels had sex with women who birthed giants? Was I really to believe that it was acceptable to sell your daughter into slavery? Noah really fit two of every animal onto a boat? For the sake of brevity I will not bother to look up the exact scripture, we all know it's there. A grown person should never be able to say they believe such tomfoolery with a straight face. Then I realized why the church members could, they had only read John 3:16. Most of them had never heard about the whole score of mythological chicanery and fairy tale notions in the bible.
To boot, all of the evidences for the bible is in the bible, something you can never do in a logical argument. These people assumed the bible was true and worked around it, but that's entirely wrong. They have to do that because if they followed the rules of science, their bible would fall faster than a French prize fighter. Josh McDowell's apologetics are a joke, and even the best Christian apologetics always come down to the faith issue. When I got a little older and began reading classic literature I realized that the gods of ancient Greece, Rome and Egypt and every other civilization bore striking resemblances to the Christian god. I liked the story of Noah better when it was Gilgamesh. In antiquity, people were just as religious and just as willing to die or kill for their gods.
My father was always a very lazy man, and he always used the excuse that god will provide to not have to work. He made my life miserable as well as my immediate family's lives, but god will provide. He would also use the bible to argue with my mother when she thought he was being ridiculous, and he almost always was. That is what Christianity comes down to, it's a way for people to feel better and justify their own shortcomings. Now then, Christianity is not the only faith guilty of this, but it is no different either. The god of the old testament is not the god of the new testament, but either way they both act like children. Gods have a way of acting like men, they get jealous or angry and smite people just 'cause. Where is the moral in the story of Judah or Noah? Why did God, a loving god I might add, get angry when all the Amalekites weren't killed? Odd, I seem to remember something about "Thou shalt not kill".
Finally, I'm not trying to argue my side, I will do that later. This is just my personal story as to why I am not a Christian. It may not be as good as Bertrand Russell's, but it something that has helped me in my life more than all the water turned into wine.
Riverside
CA
U.S.
Joined: 1
Left: 16
Was: Protestant
Now: Agnostic
Converted because: Born into it
De-converted because: Actually read into it
I was born into Christianity, and just like everything else your parents tell you, it has to be true. Well, as a child my ability to reason did not go far beyond "stove hot", so naturally I fully believed what my parents told me. It is reasonable to assume that they taught me about their god and did so as a verifiable fact. So I didn't doubt it, I didn't know any better and if I went to church I didn't get in trouble. To be honest, I never really believed in Jesus Christ as he is presented in the bible, I believed in Jesus Christ as the church presented him (if he did in fact exist at all). I never read the bible or prayed, and I certainly didn't tithe. It took me until I was fifteen years old to read the bible, and at that point something very curious occurred.
I realized that many parts of the bible, and I'm sure that those reading this need not be refreshed, flat out contradicted each other. Even the sections that made sense were quite often ridiculous and incredible. Did the church really expect me to believe that angels had sex with women who birthed giants? Was I really to believe that it was acceptable to sell your daughter into slavery? Noah really fit two of every animal onto a boat? For the sake of brevity I will not bother to look up the exact scripture, we all know it's there. A grown person should never be able to say they believe such tomfoolery with a straight face. Then I realized why the church members could, they had only read John 3:16. Most of them had never heard about the whole score of mythological chicanery and fairy tale notions in the bible.
To boot, all of the evidences for the bible is in the bible, something you can never do in a logical argument. These people assumed the bible was true and worked around it, but that's entirely wrong. They have to do that because if they followed the rules of science, their bible would fall faster than a French prize fighter. Josh McDowell's apologetics are a joke, and even the best Christian apologetics always come down to the faith issue. When I got a little older and began reading classic literature I realized that the gods of ancient Greece, Rome and Egypt and every other civilization bore striking resemblances to the Christian god. I liked the story of Noah better when it was Gilgamesh. In antiquity, people were just as religious and just as willing to die or kill for their gods.
My father was always a very lazy man, and he always used the excuse that god will provide to not have to work. He made my life miserable as well as my immediate family's lives, but god will provide. He would also use the bible to argue with my mother when she thought he was being ridiculous, and he almost always was. That is what Christianity comes down to, it's a way for people to feel better and justify their own shortcomings. Now then, Christianity is not the only faith guilty of this, but it is no different either. The god of the old testament is not the god of the new testament, but either way they both act like children. Gods have a way of acting like men, they get jealous or angry and smite people just 'cause. Where is the moral in the story of Judah or Noah? Why did God, a loving god I might add, get angry when all the Amalekites weren't killed? Odd, I seem to remember something about "Thou shalt not kill".
Finally, I'm not trying to argue my side, I will do that later. This is just my personal story as to why I am not a Christian. It may not be as good as Bertrand Russell's, but it something that has helped me in my life more than all the water turned into wine.
Riverside
CA
U.S.
Joined: 1
Left: 16
Was: Protestant
Now: Agnostic
Converted because: Born into it
De-converted because: Actually read into it
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